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Cincinnati Enquirer
August 2, 1998

King Wrecking Reigns in Demolition Field

By Amy Higgins

Page 1 of 2

In the entryway of King Wrecking Co. Inc.'s Gest Street office, there is a list titled "Sites to Wreck." Midway down the list, among Wright Patterson AFB and Miami Whitewater Treatment Plant and holding no special place of honor, is the line that reads "Paul Brown Stadium site."

In past years, similar signs have included Crosley Field, Campbell County Jail and the Zoo Opera Pavilion. Indeed, King Wrecking has reduced more Greater Cincinnati history to rubble than most people see in a lifetime.

"King Wrecking is a prominent company, and they've torn down some prominent buildings," said Beth Sullebarger, executive director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association.

But back in his office, Rubin Slovin, King Wrecking president and co-founder, just shrugs and sighs when asked about his part in the city's historical transformation.

"We really don't sit down and keep track of it all," Mr. Slovin says. "It's just part of the work."

That work started 42 years ago when Mr. Slovin started King Wrecking with a friend, who has since passed away. And in those 42 years, King Wrecking has gone from four employees to 60, from tearing down buildings with sledge hammers to knocking them into rubble with four 8,000-pound wrecking balls.

Two of those wrecking balls have been pounding since the middle of June almost continuously on the Cincinnati Commercial Warehouse building, the massive riverfront structure that — until last week — stood on the site where the Bengals will practice in 2000.

In the last two months, King Wrecking has hauled more than 100,000 tons of cement and debris to landfills. Trucks have made 5,000 to 6,000 trips filled with broken cement and twisted metal.

Used mostly as a refrigeration warehouse, two-foot-thick cement walls and floors made the building one of the sturdiest King has torn down. Mr. Slovin said it normally would take five or six months, but the stadium construction schedule has made them do the job in two.

Hamilton County is paying King $800,000 to tear down the 74-year-old, 714,000-square-foot warehouse. The company earned another $800,000 tearing down much of the rest of the riverfront, including Flanagan's Landing and Caddy's Complex.

In that respect, things have come full circle for Mr. Slovin and King Wrecking: The company's first job in 1957 was tearing down a one-story warehouse on Front Street where Cinergy Field stands today, Mr. Slovin said.

But for that privilege, King Wrecking paid the city $1.

Mr. Slovin said he wasn't a particularly destructive child. As a youth, he never harbored thoughts of growing up to tear things down. Instead, he said, he was just looking for work.

After graduating from Hughes High School and trying out jobs in poultry stores, bakeries and newsstands, 20-year-old Mr. Slovin teamed up with a friend of his who had bought a salvage yard. That friend needed a partner, and Mr. Slovin jumped on board.

"I was always looking for an opportunity to better myself," Mr. Slovin said.

After a few years, it became apparent that there wasn't enough salvage business to support both partners. And it became apparent to Mr. Slovin that there were more of his sought-after opportunities elsewhere, so he let his partner buy him out, and he founded King Wrecking.

He chose the name, it turns out, for no special reason. Sure, they get to use a crown in the logo, but mostly, it just sounded good, Mr. Slovin said.

"If you looked in the Yellow Pages, would you call a company called Slovin Wrecking or King Wrecking?" he said. "But I do get called Mr. King on occasion."

But choosing the name was the easy part. Getting work was the hard part. A handful of existing contractors made getting started difficult for Mr. Slovin and his partner, he said. King Wrecking was bad-mouthed to customers and downgraded to the bank.

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